Wildlife Blog

Red Panda Babies at Boston Zoo

One of the new cubs at the Franklin Park Zoo peers at out of the nest box. Photo: Rebecca King Clayman/ Zoo New England via AP

A pair of red pandas were born at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, MA on July 4. The male and female cubs will be on public view by the end of October. Until then, the cubs will remain in a nest box with their mother.

In the wild, red pandas inhabit bamboo forests in China, the Himalyas, and Myanmar. The IUCN has classified them as vulnerable for extinction with fewer than 10,000 mature red pandas alive in the wild. Threats to the red panda include habitat loss and fragmentation as well as poaching.